Dr. Angela Jackson is changing workplace culture with new book releasing today

By Nia Harmon

“Success is not a solo sport,” said Ann Shoket at the beginning of a book talk on workplace culture. To her left, the star of yesterday morning’s panel: Dr. Angela Jackson, CEO of Future Forward Strategies, lecturer at Harvard Graduate School of Education, senior advisor to the Project on Workforce at Harvard, and author of “The Win-Win Workplace.”

A day ahead of the release of her first book, the event dove deep into the best practices for ensuring an equitable and successful work environment. And while no stranger to speaking at SXSW, this was her first time being there on her own.

“It feels incredible because being here, you’ve got people literally from all over the world,” she said. “I’ve met people from Brazil, from Czech Republic, and they’re talking about how they can take these ideas and how they resonate in their workplaces internationally.” 

“I’m learning a lot, but I feel like I’m also contributing.”

The 249 page toolkit that is The “Win-Win Workplace” explores the power of investing in employees and how that integral act as an employer leads to a thriving workplace. Being at both ends of the employee-employer spectrum during her professional career, Jackson has experienced environments that at times felt aloof and detached.

“Life happens and that impacts your ability to work,” said Jackson during the talk. 

As defined by the author herself, a win-win workplace is one that “as soon as [employees] step in the door, they feel truly invested in. They feel valued, not only for their contribution, but for their ideas and because they’re human.”

“And we see businesses who understand that, who acknowledge that, and who are showing how that becomes their competitive advantage. People say, and employers say, that people are their most valuable product. With the win-win workplace you’re able to prove that,” she added. 

Growing up, Jackson experienced the impact of workplace culture that did not prioritize people. Her grandfather worked on the line at a Chrysler factory plant, and she remembers his enthusiasm when it was announced that Lee Iacocca had bought the plant. Her grandfather trusted that Iacocca would have the employees’ best interests at heart; instead, her grandfather and many other plant employees were met with a devastating reality.

“I remember him being so excited about that moment,” said Jackson. “But I also remember a year later when that factory closed, and what that did for not only my family, but for the community.”

This loss took a toll on her family, the first of another life-altering moment that changed her view of workplace culture.

“The ground shook from under us,” said Jackson during the book talk. 

Years later after successfully climbing the corporate ladder and becoming an executive for a major technology and electronics company, Jackson was in a horrific car accident while traveling for work. During the book talk, she recounted the years leading up to this as “the loneliest she had ever been,” fully consumed by work and not seeing loved ones regularly due to the demanding schedule. 

However, the people who were supposed to be her family at work had a flippant reaction to her return. Jackson said she was met with “business as usual.”

“I went from being all over the world, up in the air, to being sidelined on my couch with a neck brace and excruciating pain and physical therapy. I felt like my life stopped,” she said. “Even though I was able to go back to work when I got there, no one really acknowledged that I had this traumatic injury and experience while I was on the job.”

“I felt like I had completely changed, and I was still in some pain and discomfort but no one really cared about that,” she said. “It made me realize when I walked in that day [that] if I’d have died in that moment, work [would’ve still] went on, and for that, it made me sad.”

After grappling with her new reality, Jackson decided to take a sabbatical and in-turn, founded Future Forward Strategies, a consultancy firm that works with companies and nonprofit organizations on how to have a positive impact while remaining competitive and equitable. 

“People also want to feel seen,” she said during the conversation. “I wanted to create a workplace I wanted to work in.” 

With a holistic approach to revamping work environments, Jackson’s work emphasizes the value of investing in, listening to, and understanding the needs of employees. Solutions are offered in chapter four, “Reimaging Employee Benefits.” 

“We spend a third of our lives at work. This is the perfect place to think about doing things differently,” she said. 

Understanding is incredibly critical to the health and wellbeing of people, as found by researchers at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the de Beaumont Foundation. 

“When you look at the research that came out from Harvard, they said that most people would miss a medical appointment, a critical one, before telling their employer,” she said. “To me, that’s heartbreaking if you have a critical doctor’s appointment and you don’t feel safe enough to tell your manager or leadership that you need to step out and you miss that appointment. That’s the world of work that we’re trying to combat in this book.”

But a win-win environment goes beyond great benefits and paid-time-off; it’s important to evaluate how and where your business or company is investing and who all it helps.

“All workplaces mostly have hierarchies, but the companies I write about in the book, they really try to be forward thinking on how they can decrease the lived experience of those hierarchies and the felt experience,” she said. “We’re saying that we need to invest in the people to make sure that they’re okay and when they’re okay, our business thrives at the end of the day.”

Companies have already been putting the win-win approach into place, and results reflect its purpose.

“What this research and this book showed me is that there are a lot of companies investing in their people,” she said. “Those are the companies that we want to work for.”

Jackson also encourages consumers to not leave the responsibility of win-win workplaces to employers. 

“We get to vote with our dollars, and we should vote for employers that listen to their employees,” Jackson told the audience. 

The “Win-Win Workplace” will be available for purchase starting today, March 11th. To celebrate, Jackson is ushering in this new chapter in a familiar place.

“I’m doing this big signing in Barnes and Noble, and we have a big billboard in Times Square,” she said. “I started [working] right there in Times Square, so it’s really a full circle moment that I get to come back now as an author.”

And with that, here’s to work environments that are always thriving.

“We believe that a win-win workplace is possible, we just need the imagination for it.”